[SR] 2009.06.24 - Sanmon Gossip (CD) [Album]

[Scribble R]

Sanmon Gossip is very easy to overplay, but whenever I return to it after a few months' break I always end up thinking 'actually, this album's quite good!' It's a pity it was released in the current, er, climate of Ringo's career. It's an effortless album on Ringo's part, but in a magical kind of way!

[Osiris12345]

Agreed. I just gave this a listen the other day and I forgot how much I love the opening track, Mettei Monogatari, Tsugou no ii Karada, and Shun. I still stand by the fact that she should have done a sequel PV to Mayonaka with Mettei Monogatari but I'm happy with the Tsugou animated video. It's a really fun album, definitely among her most listenable.

[TurtleFu]

I just love how amazing Bonsai Hada is. It's just her voice and an accordion. This song proves that she has a really beautiful voice, and the lyrics roll of her tongue as if she was an old chanteuse.

[Maou]

Bonsai Hada is totally hit and miss. I'm in the group who thinks it's a well written song, but would've been way better with a band arrangement instead of the accordion. It may have surpassed Nippon ni Umarete as the best Shiina ballad.

My favorite song on the album is still Zero Chiten Kara.

[Nimh]

Originally Posted by Maou

Bonsai Hada would've been way better with a band arrangement instead of the accordion.

Have to (reluctantly) agree with that one.

I listened to Sanmon Gossip a lot driving around L.A. I actually associate that album with good memories of driving and playing it loud.

[TurtleFu]

I love the accordion. It's one of the instruments I (attempted to learn how to, but failed to) play.
Bonsai Hada is extremely emotional, despite the simplicity of just being vocals and accordion.
I feel like a Band arrangement would have pulled away from the emotions in it.

I've never really got why people hate on the accordion. It's one of the coolest instruments out there, IMHO.

[Glathannus]

I tend to like any instrument with a piano-style layout, even if pianos, organs, and harpsichords sound nothing alike. I'd like to get my hands on an accordion someday, and channel some videogame-sounding music I haven't had a more appropriate outlet for.

I don't 100% approve of an accordion solo with vocals. It's kind of like how lyrics and/or compositions can get compromised when they are packaged together. In this case, I think it was mostly the accordion which got compromised, so I'm not really understanding how any accordion fans could like this track so much. If you like the accordion sound, it's richly-recorded here, but the playing was about as simple as most of Izawa's keyboarding.

[so_cold]

I thought she trying to mirror the style of Coba's accordion with her singing in Bonsai Hada. It's a novel idea, although it's a bit "Saito Neko violin" in execution and/or Vic Reeves singing in the club style.

Futari Bocchi Jikan is actually a very good melody and the one that would improve most drastically with a stripped-down arrangement because the Neko one is, well... There was a decent piano cover / ringtone floating around at the time at the time of it being released. Maybe if she'd just kept the tuned percussion and some drums or something.

But, maybe because it came out when I was first a fan, but I like SG and in the end feel defensively towards it (@Scribble: where is this criticism from outside of EMF?) Its a good album with a lot of music on it and better than I'm ever personally gonna get from Phase 2. It still qualifies as the 4th solo album, and it even has its own colour in the same way that MM is blue, SS is pink, KZK is black etc. TJ albums will never mean as much cos they're not colour-coded.

[Scribble R]

I was thinking Rate Your Music, but checking again it's not as bad as I remembered. It might be that one review about lounge jazz, Ringo's plastic surgery and being a hostess that stood out and coloured my perception.

[TurtleFu]

(Ringo was a hostess?)

I don't really get what you mean about Bonsai Hada's accordion being simple. After all, coba is a master of his instrument. And accordion + vocals can be good. There's this indie accordion player, Jason Webley, who makes good songs that are just him and his accordion.

I like the instrument + Shiina arrangements best. I also really like the Baishou Ecstacy version of "Kareha" because it's just Saito and Shiina.

See, I feel like Futari Bocchi Jikan is one of those songs that Shiina fans would normally complain about. The melody is simple, the lyrics are saccharine. But I like how she added tap-dancing into the song as a form of percussion.